


with your hand in mine

by virtuosity



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Magic, Practical Magic AU, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 14:19:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16477172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virtuosity/pseuds/virtuosity
Summary: For more than 200 years the Virtue women had been blamed by everything that had ever gone wrong in London.





	with your hand in mine

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!
> 
> Mickie told me I should write this, and it turned out to be far easier than I expected.
> 
> It's not an exaaaact AU because I wanted Scott to be more central to the plot and the connection with him that's at the heart. 
> 
> Chapter two (hopefully) coming soon! This is tentatively two chapters, but it might end up being longer. Let me know what you think!

For more than 200 years the Virtue women had been blamed by everything that had ever gone wrong in London.

Whispers and rumors had swirled around the family for as long as anyone could remember, and while it wasn’t particularly Canadian, people kept their distance. It didn’t help that odd things seemed to follow them around - strange occurrences, abnormal abilities, and of course the fact that anyone that dared to love a Virtue woman found a fast route to an untimely death. 

What the townspeople didn’t know, however, was that the women of Virtue family struggled just as much as anyone with their powers. Many years ago, one of their ancestors had set upon the female line a curse; one that doomed any relationship based on real, true love an ending of grief and torment.    


And so it was that Grace Virtue lost John…

...Stella Virtue lost Matthew...

...Frances Virtue lost Noah…

...and Kate Virtue lost Jim. 

...leaving Tessa Virtue heartbroken, angry, and determined never to fall in love for as long as she lived. 

As Kate and her daughter moved back into the grand Virtue mansion, their shoulders slumped, but welcomed by Frances with open arms, the last thing they expected was kindness or support from the town. They leaned on each other; it’s how it always was and was always expected to be. 

And then the Moirs moved into town. 

There were two things that Alma Moir had no patience for - rudeness and bullshit. So when a young Tessa Virtue took refuge in their front yard from a taunting group of neighborhood girls, and her youngest, Scott, took it upon himself to step in front of her and make it very clear that they would have to go through him to get to her, all she did was smile and offer the shy little girl a cookie and a glass of milk when her son took her by the hand and gently pulled her into the house. 

From that day on, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were utterly inseparable. No matter where they were or what they were doing their hands naturally found each other, both of them taking comfort from the strange and unexplainable current that flowed through their fingers when they they were intertwined.  

It helped that the Moirs understood magic. 

It couldn’t be denied that Tessa was extraordinarily powerful. Against her will and despite her best efforts, she often couldn’t control it, finding herself in the midst of a sudden thunderstorm during a particularly bad mood or lighting a fire in the fireplace with only a thought if she was cold. 

The surprising and unexpected thing was that Scott did too. Unlike the Virtues, where magic descended through generations, Scott was an aberration, born with an innate ability to shift and twist the world around him through thought alone. It had shown itself early in his life, odd little things popping up here and there, but his true magic didn’t seem to spark until he met Tessa. She was powerful, and it made him powerful.  The problem was that Tessa didn’t want her magic. She wanted to shed the spectre of her family and the legacy of witchcraft that was her birthright. As hard as he tried, Scott couldn’t get her to celebrate and take pride in her power, finding that she only let herself dabble in spells and magic when it was just the two of them, hiding out from the world. 

The children grew, as they so often do, into teenagers, and, somewhere, something changed between them. Their friendship didn’t end, rather it grew, blossoming into something more, something deeper, something real. Despite her promises to herself that she would never fall in love, she did, unable to resist their bond and everything that came with it. Now it made sense that a strange magic coursed between their joined hands, undefinable and bigger than them.  

It seemed fine - until they took the next step. The morning after they had fallen into bed - heat and love and a heady magic that felt like home overwhelming them until they lay spent in each other’s arms - Scott got sick. Bafflingly, terrifyingly sick. Undiagnosed, he lay in the hospital, weak but fighting, until Tessa came to a revelation. It was her. She had done this to him. Selfishly, she had fallen in love with him, and in doing so had made him subject to the curse that plagued her family. 

Despite the fact that it felt like she had lost something vital, like an arm or lung or her heart, she pulled away, leaving the hospital and watching as he recovered without her, ignoring his calls and curling deeper into her bed as he pounded on her door, begging her to talk to him. Days turned into weeks turned into months, and he stopped trying. Heartbroken and stunned, he stumbled through life, doing his best to pretend that she no longer existed because it was the only way he could remember how to breathe. 

Grade twelve came and went, and he heard through hushed whispers that she had applied to a university in Vancouver and would be gone before the summer was over. It shook him to the core when he realized that she had done her best to get as far away from him as she possibly could. 

The night before she was set to leave, he found himself outside of her house. Deep down he knew that whatever had happened, she loved him, and he couldn’t let her go, not without saying goodbye. 

She knew that he would come, had left the window unlatched for him, and didn’t startle as he slid into bed with her, wrapping himself around her tightly. They spoke in rough whispers and pleas carried on soft breaths:

“Don’t go.”

“I have to.”

“Why?”

“I’m not good for you.”

A sense of clarity settled in Scott’s mind. “T, this is stronger than any curse. I survived. I’m here. It’s different for us.”

Thick tears rolling down her cheeks, she choked out, “I can’t.”

“Please, Tessa. Don’t do this.” 

“I can’t watch you die.” 

She kissed him then, soft touches of their lips that eventually dissolved into deep ones, holding each other desperately, losing themselves in each other, the magic that was simply them  _ together _ twirling dizzily around them. They fell asleep, hands grasped tightly together. 

In the morning, Tessa slipped from her bed, placing a soft call to Alma, waiting brokenly for her and Joe to come get Scott and take him to the hospital, and then she was gone.    

They both moved on - as much as was possible anyway. She excelled in university and built a life in Vancouver, one that felt perpetually bland, somehow devoid of full color, but satisfying enough. She was smart, savvy, and ambitious; she found a career that she was good at, and that became her focus.  

He stayed in London, joined the family business, met a girl, and settled down. When Tessa heard the news, she refused to break; steadfastly making her way through the days, keeping the pain locked away inside where she had left it the moment she left. 

She ignored the wedding invitation. 

Worry set in for Kate and Frances as they watched Tessa dissolve into a life of work and solitude, and as the years passed they made a decision. They needed to intervene. With a quiet incantation and a particular mixture of herbs, they altered her free will, just slightly, and then she met James and it wasn’t everything, but it was enough. 

Kaitlyn had known from the beginning that as much as Scott loved her, ultimately his heart belonged to Tessa. He was faithful and true and loving, and he made her happy, and for awhile that was enough. But after eight years and two beautiful little girls, she realized that it wasn’t. It wasn’t fair to her, to Scott, to Charlotte and Lilly - and so with care and love, they separated, making the transition as simple and safe for the girls as possible. 

Life went on. 

Until one day, as he made his way down the stairs after putting girls to bed, he felt a chill run down his spine. 

Then the phone rang. 

“Tessa?” he hastily answering the call, knowing who it was without looking, his heart pounding. 

“Scott?” she said, her voice soft and broken. She was crying. “I need your help.” 


End file.
